NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court’s stay on the revocation of the status of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath as a ‘star campaigner’ for the Congress brings to the fore the power of the Election Commission of India and its role in ensuring a clean campaign. Chief Justice S.A. Bobde appeared convinced that the ECI has no such power, and ordered a stay on its order. Nath earned the ECI’s rebuke after a distasteful personal remark about a BJP woman candidate while campaigning for a by-election to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly recently. The poll panel, in exercise of its general and plenary power of control and direction over elections, ought to have the power to revoke the status of a campaigner, if there is an apparent breach of campaign norms or the Model Code of Conduct. After all, the star status ensures that some leaders can charter helicopters and travel extensively to cover more territory and constituencies without breaching any individual candidate’s spending limit. The ECI has cited the clause in the MCC that bars candidates from resorting to “criticism of all aspects of the private life, not connected with the public activities” of other leaders and party workers. Even though the model code is not statutory, it has been generally recognised that the election watchdog should have some means of enforcing its norms. In past orders, the ECI has cited the Supreme Court’s observation that when laws are absent, the Commission can invoke its residuary power to meet an infinite variety of situations that cannot be foreseen by lawmarkers. It is indeed debatable whether the ECI has been exercising its powers in an even-handed way in recent years, which has regularly been alleged. However, it is equally important that the ECI’s power to enforce poll norms and clean campaigns is not unduly abridged. Fairness should be the rule of the game.